Podcast: What's The Best Way To Take Care Of My Eyes

Dr. Park: When you wear contact lenses, there’s a particular type of organism that starts to grow. And then if that gets into the surface of the eye, if you get a little scratch on the eye, that bacteria can get in there and then, you know, that becomes a big problem.

Courtney: Welcome to Health Matters, your weekly dose of the latest in health and wellness from NewYork-Presbyterian. I’m Courtney Allison.

Does eating carrots boost your vision? Do glasses that block blue-light actually work? How harmful is it to sleep with contacts in?

Dr. Lisa Park, an ophthalmologist with NewYork-Presbyterian and Columbia, explains the best ways to take care of our eyes as we age. She explains common conditions to watch out for, shares tips on how to protect our vision, and answers the questions she gets most from her patients. 

Courtney: Dr. Park, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for being here today.

Dr. Park: Thank you so much for having me.

Courtney: Today we want to cover some of the basics of eye health, and especially the questions that you get the most from patients. So let’s start, what does it mean for our eyes to be healthy?

Dr. Park: So, of course everybody’s eyes, as part of their body, should be healthy. We know that people wanna be able to see clearly with or without glasses, but we also wanna make sure that the eyes are healthy, that there’s no disease, and those are things that we look for on a regular eye exam. Of course, we also look to make sure that somebody can see well with their best correction – glasses or contact lenses. And as people age, we look for things like cataracts, and that’s my area of specialty.

Courtney: So cataracts – and what are some other eye conditions that people should be on the lookout for?

Dr. Park: Certain diseases that just have to be monitored and tracked and screened for including things like macular degeneration, glaucoma, and cataracts. Those are the three top diagnoses that we see over a certain age, I would say middle age. And so those are the things that we want to really monitor for. For patients with a strong family history of some eye disease, you should come probably earlier than later.

Starting age 40, we say come every few years and make sure that all these things that come with age are in check. And then over the age of 60, we’ll say come every year, because there are certain things that occur with age that we can prevent and we can control if we find it early.

Courtney: And so what are some more basic things we can do to protect our eyes?

Dr. Park: People ask me, should I wear sunglasses? And the answer is, of course, UV light is not good for many parts of the body, including the eyes. So, you know, it protects your skin, it protects the insides of the eyes, so things that are healthy for your body are, are healthy for your eyes.

You know we see a lot of eye injuries, so things that have poked and gone into the eye. And the most common thing that we see that is very preventable is people who are doing some kind of work in their home – hammering, nailing, some kind of work like that. I’m gonna say absolutely where there could be a high speed projectile, protect your eyes, wear safety glasses. If you’re handling, you know, cleaning fluids or something like, I’m gonna say also protect your eyes we see splashes to the eye.

And kids who play sports, I say you know what, wear safety goggles, wear safety glasses.I think I’ve seen everything. I’ve seen golf ball in eye, I’ve seen tennis ball in eye. So what we say is you protect your eyes. 

Courtney: Thank you for highlighting all these scenarios. Some I hadn’t thought of.

Dr. Park: Mm-hmm. Yes. We see all of them.

Courtney: OK – now for some myth-busting. We’ve got a list of questions that people may have about their eyes. 

To start, is it true that blue eyes are more sensitive to light?

Dr. Park: So if we think about what’s blocking light from getting into the eyes? The pigmented or the colored part of the eye is part of that. So it’s interesting to note that somebody with blue eyes, if you look at the underside of the blue part of their, the blue tissue, it’s actually brown on the other other parts.

Courtney: Oh wow.

Dr. Park: So if you have blue eyes versus brown eyes, you know, could more light be getting in, could be people be more sensitive? Everyone is different, and so that’s possible.

Courtney: Interesting. I do have blue eyes and I do feel very sensitive to light, so – that’s interesting,

Dr. Park: Right. OK. Well then, OK.

Courtney: I’ve heard that carrots are good for eye health. Is that true?

Dr. Park: You know, there’s certain diseases that it is true. If you don’t have, um, certain vitamins that, that can result in significant problems with the eye.But in general, we don’t see that in the United States. So I’m gonna say eat carrots of course, they’re healthy for you, but we’ve never seen people really because they didn’t eat carrots that something happens to their eyes. Mm-hmm.

Courtney: Right. And in general, like we always hear a vitamin rich diet is good for you, eyes and body.

Dr. Park: Yes. Always.

Courtney: If you have a hard time seeing close or far, can you retrain your eyes?

Dr. Park:: Hmm, that’s a good question. The short answer is no, not really. 

Courtney: OK.

Dr. Park: So, so the, the short, short answer is your eyes are your eyes, there’s gonna be a certain focal point. And so you can’t force yourself necessarily to see at the focal point that is not naturally what you’re born with. That being said, when we look at something far away and we look at something close, it’s not just about light getting into the eyes and focusing on the retina, it’s also the movement of the eyes. And so if you’re looking far away, the two eyes are straight and then you go to look at something close, the two eyes have to turn in a little bit and the pupils actually get smaller.

And so there are some people who the eyes turning in is a little bit difficult. They have what’s called convergence insufficiency, so that their muscles actually don’t turn the eyes in so well. And so that can be trained. That then we recommend certain eye exercises where you in general look at your finger far away and then bring it closer and closer to your nose and then look at closeup, or you take a pencil, look at it far away, and then – we call them pencil pushups. But that’s only for a very specific type of person. 

Courtney: Well, and that reminds me too. So if we’re looking at a computer all day, should we be taking breaks? Llooking away for a little?

Dr. Park: Absolutely. Absolutely. So that is one of the products of what has happened now with all of our technology, all of our screens, our computer, our phones, is that people are looking at things close up, and yes, that can cause fatigue because we have to use the muscles to bring in the eyes. And then we’re also changing the shape of the lens called accommodation. And so we do generally recommend, if you’re looking at something close, remember every 20 minutes, look 20 feet away for 20 seconds at least, and try to give your eyes a break.

There is currently around the world also what we’re calling a myopic epidemic, and that is now children are growing up and we notice that overall in the population there is a worsening of the condition myopia. Myopia referring in layman’s to nearsightedness. And what we believe that’s from is actually the length of the eye is growing and therefore the light that’s shining, and is not actually hitting the back of the eye. And there are a few theories as to why that is happening globally around the world. One is that – so we know in Asian countries where there are large populations that are actually, you know, spending 10, 12 hours a day actually studying, that we’re seeing the worsening of this nearsightedness or myopia. The others we’re wondering if it’s because of the lack of children running around outside. And so actually in China it’s mandated that there are a certain number of hours that the children are actually sent outside during school hours in order to run around outside, and to prevent them from looking at something close.

Courtney: So outdoor play is good for children’s eye health.

Dr. Park: Yes. Yes. In addition to overall health and social, social adjustments and things like that. Yes, absolutely.

Courtney: So many things.

Dr. Park: So many things.

Courtney: Um, we talked about screens. Does blue light from screens damage our eyes?

Dr. Park: That is a big question that I get. People ask me all the time, should I wear blue blocking glasses? And the answer is, again, there is no study, there’s no scientific study that has come out to say that those are advantageous. However, people feel more comfortable with them. So if you’re looking at a screen all the time, and you feel comfortable wearing those blue blocking glasses, then go ahead and wear them.

Courtney: So for those of us who wear contacts, if I have disposable contact lenses, can I wear them for longer than the recommended period?

Dr. Park: OK, so what are contact lenses? Contact lenses are, instead of putting a lens outside the eye in glasses, you’re putting now a lens on top of the surface of the eye in order to focus the light. They’re great, they’re fantastic. I wear contact lenses when I go to ski and things like that.

However, contact lenses are now sitting on the front surface of your eye. They’re reshaping the surface and they’re also blocking an important nutrient, and that is oxygen. So oxygen, which is needed by our entire body, and is usually brought to most organs by blood vessels and blood, the front part of the eye, the cornea has no blood vessels in it, and therefore it’s getting oxygen directly from air. And so now you put a foreign body called a contact lens, and you’re blocking the oxygen on the surface of the eye. Blood vessels are starting to grow where they normally don’t grow.

So a hundred percent of contact lens wearers, I see those blood vessels that are growing, and if they’re just on the edge, I’m gonna say, all right, it’s probably not bothering you that much. However, over years and years and years, we see those grow and then we see the contact lens rubbing up against the edge of those blood vessels. And it is not uncommon that we see something called contact lens intolerance, where people start to say, oh, you know, my, my contact lenses are uncomfortable, my eyes are feeling irritated. They feel very dry. It’s very difficult to wear the contact lenses. And so I tell people. Give your eyes a break, let oxygen direct get directly to your eyes, and so you can prolong the use of your contact lenses.

You should also be aware that, you know you put a foreign body on top of your eye, there’s bacteria there. And so I did some studies showing that, the ocular microbiome, the, you know, there’s, there’s bacteria everywhere, but when you wear contact lenses, there’s a particular type of organism that starts to grow. And then if that gets into the surface of the eye, if you get a little scratch on the eye that bacteria can get in there and then, you know, that becomes a big problem.

And so my recommendation is A) don’t sleep with contact lenses because now you’re just creating a petri dish – a warm, moist area where bacteria that aren’t supposed to grow or gonna grow. So don’t sleep in them. Don’t – I, I know this is gonna sound funny – don’t sit in hot tubs or in saunas or steam rooms because again, there are certain bacteria that are in that very humid environment that get under the contact lens, which can be dangerous. Don’t swim in them, even though it might seem very convenient to do so, I’m gonna say get prescription goggles don’t wear contact lenses in, in dirty water. And it’s always, of course, better if you can have disposable contact lenses and throw them away every day and get a new contact lens and they’re clean and they don’t have bacteria on them. Those are obviously the best. They’re of course more expensive. You have to weigh the risks and benefits. But I’m gonna say absolutely no sleeping.

Courtney: I can’t wait to share this with my friends and family who wear contact lenses. As you see, we’re both wearing glasses today. I don’t wear mine very often, but I know it’s so easy to fall asleep in them. What great motivation to go take them out.

Dr. Park: That’s exactly, and the other habit that I recommend is before you take your contact lenses out, put a lubricating drop inside the eye and let that float off the surface of the eye before you just go ahead and scrape that – you know, when we’re grabbing the contact lens it’s just scraping it across the surface – and so if your eyes are very dry, you’re gonna create micro scratches there. And so if there are bacteria there, we don’t want them to get into those scratches. So that’s my one big recommendation. Don’t sleep in them and put an eye drop before you scrape that off the surface of your eye. That can really protect yourself from getting a problem.

Courtney: These are such great tips. Thank you so much.

Dr. Park: Absolutely.

Courtney: OK, here’s another one that I was definitely guilty of: does reading in the dark when you’re a kid hurt your eyesight for the long term?

Dr. Park: Right. So reading in the dark, under the covers, with a flashlight. In general, no, using your eyes, you should be fine. So it’s not –

Courtney: Great news. 

Dr. Park: Yeah, great news. Let your kids read. Maybe don’t let them look at the phone. Maybe let them read a book. I think that’s perfectly fine and healthy and good. Yeah, so we, we encourage, of course, use your eyes. That’s what they’re for and, and read.

Courtney: OK. So it doesn’t hurt you ’cause I feel like my dad was always coming in like, turn the lights on more you’re gonna hurt your eyes, and that’s OK.

Dr. Park: Right. No. And then people also often ask me, you know, about wearing their glasses or not wearing their glasses. So people worry about, if I wear my glasses, are my eyes gonna get worse and worse and worse? I’m gonna become dependent, my eyes are gonna be weaker. The answer is no. You’re just not gonna be able to see.

So let the glasses do the work and allow you to see. Your eyes are your eyes, they’re going to focus the light and so go ahead and wear the glasses, use them. Look at everything. No problem. 

Courtney: Are reading glasses inevitable?

Dr. Park: Yes. OK. All right. No, I’m gonna qualify that. I’m gonna qualify that because, so I actually don’t wear reading glasses, but the reason why is because when I take my glasses off, my focal point is naturally close up. So I actually, I read books and things without my glasses, but I can’t see distance, so I need to put my glasses on for distance.

So the question, does everybody eventually, will they have difficulty focusing from far away to close? That is true. So a hundred percent of individuals, if you live long enough, you’re going to not be able to focus both distances. And that is a function of the aging of the lens inside the eye. The lens inside the eye basically changes shape a little bit in order to see far away and see close.

So usually by mid forties people start to have difficulty looking at, you know, difficulty in a restaurant looking at a menu. They feel more fatigued looking at the computer, trying to read a book. They’re trying to really focus to see something close. So that is inevitable, a hundred percent of individuals, um, that will happen to. And so yeah, eventually people have to find a way to overcome that. Sometimes that’s with reading glasses.

Courtney: Is there any final takeaway you would, you’d love to make sure listeners take away from this conversation?

Dr. Park:: I think we covered so much. The most important thing is just be aware of your eye health, get your eyes checked regularly, and just know that there are things that are preventable.

And so we just really recommend: be proactive and make sure that your eyes are healthy.

Courtney: Thank you so much, Dr. Park. 

Dr. Park:: Obviously I love talking about this stuff, so happy to do it anytime, anytime.

Courtney: Our many thanks to Dr. Lisa Park. I’m Courtney Allison. Health Matters is a production of NewYork-Presbyterian. The views shared on this podcast solely reflect the expertise and experience of our guests. To learn more about Dr. Park’s work with patients, check out the show notes. NewYork-Presbyterian is here to help you stay amazing at every stage of your life.

To get the latest episodes of Health Matters, be sure to follow and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get podcasts.